Ridley Mayhew
Ridley Alaina Mayhew is a friend and protégé of Jack Harmon and a student at Manhattan Magnet High School. She is introduced in Season Five as a highly intelligent con artist and rock singer who fails to rob Jack several times but later forms a truce with him. She is played by actress and The Pretty Reckless frontwoman Taylor Momsen. Life Before Glee (Spoilers From Here On) Ridley was born in 1996 to Elise Mayhew and an, as of yet, unknown man. For years, Ridley was raised by her mother and her partner-in-crime, Alan Caldwell, in various neighborhoods around New York City. Due to the hostile relationship between Elise and her parents, Ridley has never met her extended family and none of them appear to have any interest in her situation. Growing up, Ridley was trained by Elise and Alan in the art of the con as well as a handful of other illegal skills such as pickpocketing, forgery, and so on. She was mostly homeschooled by the pair in her early years (which led to her love of literature) and was often kept around the gallery in order to guilt or charm potential clients. She also developed a love and talent for music at an early age, which was encouraged by Alan. However, Elise wanted Ridley to concentrate on art forgery and forced her to take art lessons. To this day, Ridley is an artist of above-average skill, but she prefers to concentrate on music. For most of her life, as well, she had many inconsistent father figures in the form of the wealthy men her mother had relationships with. For the most part, Elise's flings never lasted more than a year or two. However, she eventually married Byron Holbrook, an extremely successful movie producer, when Ridley was eleven. Ridley and Elise both truly loved Byron and Ridley made her mother swear that she would stop conning him after they were married, a promise which she's not sure her mother actually kept. When Ridley was thirteen, Alan and Elise were arrested for art forgery after their newest employee, a brilliant but very forgetful forger named Harrison, accidentally sold an untreated fake Goya that was in her mother's office. Though Elise, Alan, and Harrison feigned innocence, their combined assets were frozen and they were each arrested on a count of fraud and forgery (the prosecutors accused them of dozens more counts of each, but they couldn't be proven) and were sentenced to five years in prison. Due to Elise's high status, the trial received a fair bit of media attention (and led to the press nicknaming her the "Park Avenue Vixen"). As a result, Byron divorced Elise and Ridley was placed into foster care. For the next few years, Ridley was bounced around multiple foster homes in New York City until she was placed in the home of Craig and Erica Robinson, a kind-hearted but somewhat ineffective couple in Queens, eight months prior to her first appearance on the show. Currently, Ridley is still living with them and is attending Manhattan Magnet High School, a specialized school that focuses on nurturing students' creativity. Season Five In New New York, Ridley is introduced as Jack's criminally-inclined protégé, who befriended him after a few failed attempts to rob him, and is making some attempts to reform. It is also revealed that, though Ridley has managed to form decent relationships with most of Jack's friends, she is still having trouble getting Rachel to like her. Frustrated, she turns to Jack for advice about Rachel but, due to being distracted by the backstage drama with 15 Minutes, he proves to be unhelpful. Deciding to take matters into her own hands, Ridley takes Rachel out to lunch at the Spotlight Diner in an attempt to bond with her. However, her efforts are in vain as Rachel takes the opportunity to insult Ridley by saying that "the only way she can make friends is by conning them" and that Jack has only been spending time with her because he feels sorry for her. In an effort to not lose her temper, Ridley refrains from defending herself. However, Rachel takes the opportunity to make a crack about Ridley's incarcerated mother. Furious, Ridley decides to call her out by commandeering the stage at the diner and sings No Apologies to a mortified Rachel. After she finishes the number, Ridley quickly pays for the meal and walks out of the diner without another word. Ridley lays low for the rest of the episode until Jack shows up at her school and says that Rachel told him about what happened at the diner. Annoyed, Ridley explains her side of the story and tells Jack that she's sick of being judged. Jack then says he'll talk to her, but Ridley tells him not to bother because she's done playing nice with people like Rachel. She is then seen pickpocketing a distracted businessman on the subway during Rachel's performance of People, signaling a return to her thieving ways. Personality Songs * Radioactive (The Mark) * No Apologies (New New York) * Oh, Pretty Woman (Old Dog New Tricks) Running Gags *Most people, upon meeting Ridley for the first time, mishear her name as "Ripley" and will sometimes make an allusion to Ellen Ripley or the Alien franchise. Ridley will always correct the mistaken party. *When she's stressed, Ridley has a habit of stealing small shiny objects (keys, silverware, etc.). However, her friends have noticed this and make her empty her pockets before she leaves their respective apartments. Crimes Committed * Stole Jack's decoy wallet by mistake (The Mark) * Tailed Jack on two separate occasions (The Mark) * Stole Jack's watch, only to accidentally damage it in the process (The Mark) * Followed Jack and Kurt, while wearing a disguise, to a club in Hell's Kitchen and tried to steal Jack's wallet (The Mark) * Broke into Stephen Summers’ house with Jack (Old Dog New Tricks) Trivia * Most of her songs involve her playing the guitar to some degree. * Her most prized possession is an all black Fender Telecaster, which was a gift from Alan. * Her major musical influences are Joan Jett, Nirvana, Heart, Pat Benetar, and Debbie Harry. * Her style of music is mostly alternative, pop punk, and rock. However, she is secretly very fond of pop music and show tunes and likes to play acoustic pop covers when she busks. * She has claimed to be distantly related to George C. Parker, a notorious con man who made his living selling New York's public landmarks to unwary immigrants, and Cassie Chadwick, a woman who defrauded several U.S. banks out of millions of dollars by claiming to be an illegitimate daughter and heiress of Andrew Carnegie. * She had no idea who her father is, though she often jokes that he's a famous and/or wealthy person. She has admitted that she occasionally wonders about his identity and strongly suspects that it's Alan. Category:Characters Category:Singers Category:LGBT Characters Category:Criminals